


A Letter Home

by Urdnot Wrecks (Urdnot_Wrecks)



Category: The Technomancer (Video Game)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:42:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22438147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Urdnot_Wrecks/pseuds/Urdnot%20Wrecks
Summary: David Ward writes a letter to his father back in Ophir
Relationships: Boris Ward/David Ward
Kudos: 3
Collections: Hello Earth? This Is Mars...





	A Letter Home

Dear Dad,

Hello again from Noctis! We were so glad to get your letter: the month’s silence had us worried that something might have happened to you or Mom.  
Early days of course for the postal service between Noctis and Abundance, and I should have realised there would be teething problems.  
But I’d hoped your letter wouldn’t have taken so long!

I’m going to send this reply via Fiorello; he’s off to Ophir this afternoon.  
He’ll either have the letter for you in the Exchange, or perhaps send a messenger with it. Or who knows? He might just deliver it himself. He fondly remembers getting drunk with you at the party which followed our wedding.  
We go back a long way with him: he got us both out of Noctis, separately, when the city clamped down on us. We owe him a lot: probably would never have seen one another again without him.

I’m really hoping we’ll be able to visit you soon. Travelling to see you is difficult because Boris and I are still (officially) listed as traitors.  
Do you remember Captain Eliza Major, who organised the guard of honour at our wedding? Had a word with her when she was in Noctis recently.  
In her dry way, she said, “Probably only a 50% chance of you being shot on sight.” Which I guess is true — but it’s really not comforting! More likely we’d be detained for a few nights while enquiries are made and they find out we’re not on the wanted list these days.  
Captain says she’ll try to sort out the paperwork at her end, and in particular give Boris and me passes which explain the position if we are arrested. Obviously that’s going to take time; but I think, passes in hand, we’d at last feel safe to visit Ophir. It’s been what... five years?! Feels a lot longer. I just so much want to see you both again, even though Noctis is our home now.

We’ll be off on a short trip ourselves soon: we’re going to Mutant Valley for their Festival of Sport. Event with a long history. Started off as a meeting of mutant chiefs, at which weapons were forbidden so that planning and negotiating could take place in safety. All that stuff is now in the past (probably dealt with elsewhere), and it’s just a fun occasion for folk from all over the planet to meet. From what Captain Eliza said, there may even be an Army team from Ophir! Not sure if I’d know any of them by this stage.

As we’re getting older, we’re both starting to struggle with keeping the weight off... remember you complaining about this too. We don’t have the excuse of Mom’s wonderful cooking, though.  
The orphanage work keeps us physically busy, but of course there’s always food around all the time, and it’s much too easy just to nibble some sweet absent-mindedly. (And the fact that the kids, lucky them, can just tuck into anything they want... unlike us... just not fair!)  
Boris has taken up running, which suits his lighter build well. Particularly loves heading out into the desert, shade and wildlife permitting. Some of the folk from the city have set up tracks that are protected from both, and it’s good training; just not quite the same as being out in the wilderness itself.  
I’ve been looking around for a sport to take up, too. Got a bigger build than Boris, so running’s not as easy and rather more exhausting! I’d noticed a lot of the desert folk have bows; they’re easy to construct with the materials available in the wild, and they don’t need any significant technology to make them.  
Remember Jeff, the guy I served with just before I had to leave Ophir? He’s now an Elder with the Dust, very experienced desert guy.  
Anyway I had a word with him about a bow, and he just suggested I try one: gave me his second-best hunting bow to work with. And to my astonishment (and his), I took to it like a duck to water.  
Gave me a lot of advice, and a few hours of practice, by which time we’d taken down a couple of large moles to feed his community.  
I have a short competition bow at the minute, ready for the Festival (which is strictly no-weapons, as I think I said). A shot from that wouldn’t do an adult any serious injury (and the arrows are deliberately blunt and fragile).  
Course I really want to get a proper hunting bow like Jeff’s. I asked him where to buy one: he laughed and said you had to fashion one yourself, make yourself at one with it during construction, understand the bow as if it were a creature, stop thinking mechanically. There speaks the Desert Elder!  
But a lot of it was good advice; I’ve been talking to mutant friends about their bows, getting tips.

First bow I made was useless, but I’m still fond of it and have it around somewhere at home.  
My second bow, a hunting one, is a beauty. Looking forward to taking down quite a bit of desert wildlife with that! And as you know, I adore mole meat, even though nothing will ever beat Mom’s mole stew! Boris is not nearly so keen, but the idea of getting some fresh meat is so tempting. I’ll let you know how I get on.  
We’ll have a proper family team at the Games: me with my bow, Boris taking part in some fairly serious long-distance races, and Ellie in a relay race for the youngsters. Lots of children’s events at the Games, most of them just for fun; the relay race is taken a bit more seriously, or, by Ellie, extremely seriously! We’ve been telling her (and reminding ourselves) that sport isn’t just about winning, but about enjoying yourself and respecting the folk you compete against. She’s a bright (and bright-eyed) girl, and she takes these things on board. The apple of our eye... even though she still has the habit of waking us up by bouncing on the bed in the early morning! 

Boris sends his love. You know, there’s not a day goes by now that I don’t thank life, or the shadow, or the universe, or... I don’t know what... for giving him to me. He’s a great father, a deeply loving husband and a fine man. I’m just so glad we were able to get back together after all that happened.  
Give my love to Mom, and tell her I’m thinking of her. And you.

Your loving son,  
David

**Author's Note:**

> A piece for the second “Hello Earth? This is Mars...” ’zine. As always, many thanks to [Wahlbuilder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WahlBuilder/pseuds/WahlBuilder) and all the authors there; and to the lovely folk of (what was formerly) the Technomancer Discord


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